Big Polish Companies Trim Staff

WARSAW—Some of Poland’s largest companies said this week they would lay off nearly 3,000 workers as they struggle to contain fallout from the country’s sharply slowing economy, placing further strain on its weakening jobs market.

Reuters

A Boeing Dreamliner belonging to Polish airline LOT. The troubled carrier is among several large Polish companies to announce job cuts.

Poland’s former state-owned telecommunications monopoly Telekomunikacja Polska SA, said Tuesday it plans to shed up to 1,700 jobs this year as it faces intense competition in its now-deregulated market. The company has slashed its headcount to 22,413 from about 70,000 in 2000.

PZU SA, Central Europe’s largest insurer, said Wednesday it would cut up to 630 jobs from March to June, representing around 5.5% of its workforce.

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LOT Polish Airlines SA, Poland’s troubled flag carrier, said Thursday it would lay off at least 500 people. The company has teetered on the brink of bankruptcy for years and had to be bailed out by the government in December.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday again criticized the Polish central bank’s rate panel for what he called delayed and insufficient interest-rate cuts, which he said aggravated a worsening jobs market.

Poland’s unemployment rate rose steadily last year to 14.2% in January 2013, according to preliminary data. Mr. Tusk has said that saving jobs is his government’s main priority.

Jaroslaw Zagorowski, chief executive of coal-mining company Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa SA, said state-controlled companies like PZU or LOT are now more willing to let people go than in the past.

“We now have a completely different situation in Poland than even a few years ago, when jobs at state-controlled companies were treated as political trophies,” he said in an opinion piece for daily Rzeczpospolita. “Now managers of companies controlled by the Treasury Ministry have decidedly more freedom and business comfort. They have permission to push through difficult decisions that used to be blocked because they weren’t popular.”

The coal miner doesn’t need to implement a layoff program but 800 to 1,000 workers leave every year because they retire, Mr. Zagorowski said.

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